CHESS Stephen Dann

Sunday

Mar 10, 2013 at 8:00 AM

Why does chess turn up in so very many movies? If you ever wondered, visit www.denofgeek.com, the London site that gives answers and has movie stills and scenes from films ranging from a 1927 silent film, “The Chess Player,” to more recent high-tech films.

If it wasn’t enough to have the epic “Brooklyn Castle” about a minority team from a poor New York City neighborhood, “Endgame,” which is casting right now in Brownsville, Texas, aims to spotlight one of the country’s inspiring chess educational programs in that city’s school district, according to Gary Long in a March 6 story in The Brownsville Herald.

See the new format at www.chessbase.com, and follow the American ladies at the Women’s World Team, ending Wednesday, but it’s a closed round robin of 10 of the top chess-playing countries around the world.

Closer to home, John Curdo of Auburn won the ninth Rufus Franklin Memorial. Other prize winners were Alonzo Ross, Richard Marseglia and Peter Shtudiner. The concurrent Fervently Febrary class event was won by Ted Johnson, with Justin Wang taking second. The March schedule of the Greater Worcester Chess Club is at www.chesspals.com.

Alan Condon of Leominster won last weekend’s second Bishopsgate Invitational organized by Larry Gladding in that town. Wednesday will be the last round of the George O’Rourke Memorial at Fitchburg State University. The Wachusett club’s calendar is at www.wachusettchess.org.

Confused by chess ratings? A history of American and world chess rating systems can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_rating_system. All kinds of chess news references can be found at the daily news log of www.chesscafe.com, the Cape Cod home of chess history and education.

The USCF ( www.uschess.org) announced on March 1 it will rate blitz games of 10 minutes or less along with the slower time limits, and the article has some key references applying to all competitions, such as the 38 pages (updated to 1-1-13) of revisions to the 2003 (yes, it’s 10 years old) USCF Official Rulebook, along with references to world chess rules ( www.FIDE.com) and even how they relate to Fischer Random rules (Chess 960).

Matt Phelps of Groton wrote to say the colors were reversed, and Dr. Edward Epp of Needham deserves full credit for finding the amazing winning move in last week’s position. It has been corrected in Tim Brennan’s 2,000-page Tactics Time e-book.

Answer to quiz: White wins with 1. Bxc6 and the check next move ices the material gain. From (Larocca-Portugues, 2006) Metrowest CC and in Tim Brennan’s “Tactics Time” e-book, previewed at www.tacticstime.com.